UFC 124 Q&A with Josh Koscheck

On Saturday night, Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to the Bell Centre in Montreal for UFC 124, where in the main event Canadian superstar and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre puts his title on the line against Josh Koscheck.

On Thursday, barely 48 hours before his title shot, Koscheck went one-on-one with Postmedia News MMA reporter Dave Deibert, discussing having a birthday close to Christmas, fly-fishing tall tales and the most hostile crowd he’s ever competed in front of:

Koscheck: (Laughs) My favourite birthday gift I’ve ever received was cookies. There’s this restaurant in Pittsburgh and I live in California. I had cookies delivered to me from this restaurant in Pittsburgh all the way to California for my birthday.

Postmedia: My second daughter was born this week and I’m worried that she’s going to get ripped off by having Christmas and her birthday so close together. For her sake, please tell me that doesn’t actually happen.

Koscheck: That does not happen (laughs). She’ll have both.

Postmedia: You were an NCAA champion wrestler. You’re now one match from becoming UFC champion. You were a good enough football player in high school to get scholarship offers. But tell me a sport that no matter how much you play or try, you suck at.

Koscheck: Cricket.

Postmedia: You’ve actually tried that?

Koscheck: Yeah.

Postmedia: There are plenty of perks being a UFC fighter. But what part of your old job as a coach (University of Buffalo) or administrator (Penn State) did you enjoy more than being a fighter?

Koscheck: Montreal (at UFC 113 in May, when he beat Paul Daley to earn the title shot versus St-Pierre. Said Koscheck at Thursday’s pre-fight news conference: “I get to come in 1/8St-Pierre’s 3/8 hometown where I pissed them off in May so bad that they were throwing beer and popcorn and spitting on us, and throwing stuff at us, on the way out of the arena. I get the opportunity to repeat myself. When I win, they’re going to eventually respect me.”)

Postmedia: Your Twitter profile lists you as a UFC fighter and (trash) talker. Are you able to talk any smack in French?

Koscheck: No I can’t. Not a word.

Postmedia: You list fly-fishing as one of your favourite hobbies. What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever caught? And how much did you exaggerate to your friends the size of the fish when you were telling the story?

Koscheck: The biggest fish, I’d probably say, was three feet. I told my friends it was about six (laughs).

Postmedia: The most mainstream fly-fishing ever went was probably when Brad Pitt starred in A River Runs Through It. So who has the more rugged appeal to the ladies: you or him?

Koscheck: Oh, that’s an easy question. Me.

Postmedia: You didn’t even hesitate.

Koscheck: (Laughs) Nope.

ddeibertthe@starphoenix.com

Twitter.com/davedeibert

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UFC 124 Q&A with Josh Koscheck

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